For a generation of Sharks, the new experience of playing out the string — and Couture on where thing stand and what’s left to motivate players over next nine games

OTTAWA, Ontario — This latest generation of Sharks is about to experience something new in their NHL careers and it isn’t pleasant:

Regular season games that don’t really matter in the standings.

For 15 of the last 16 seasons, by this point the Sharks were either battling to reach the playoffs or jockeying for a better seeding. Of all the home-grown players, only Patrick Marleau and Scott Hannan were around in 2002-03 when San Jose last was playing out the string. For everyone else — the Joe Pavelskis, the Marc-Edouard Vlasics, the Logan Coutures — these are uncharted waters in the NHL.

Joe Thornton missed the playoffs in two of his seasons with the Boston Bruins, but he’s been a regular presence since 2001-02. Brent Burns missed them for three seasons with the Minnesota Wild, but never as a Shark. This is a first for Antti Niemi during his short stint with the Chicago Blackhawks and the last four seasons in San Jose.

I’ll stop there. You get the idea.

Yes, I know, the playoffs are still a mathematical possibility. And if the Sharks do finish the season 9-0 or 8-1 and do make it to the post-season, my apologies in advance for a lack of faith.

But after Monday night’s 5-2 loss here to the Ottawa Senators, reality was setting in — even in the locker room.

“We’re not good enough right now to compete against good teams in the NHL. It’s disappointing. We’re a better team, I think, than what we’ve shown in the last couple months,” Logan Couture said in a quote that appeared in the game story that you can read online here .

So will it be hard for players to find the motivation to compete in the next nine games?
“It shouldn’t be,” Couture said, going on to spell out where the drive will come from.

“You’re a rookie, you want to finish the year strong if you haven’t had a good year. You’re a second [year] guy, and you haven’t had a good year, you want to finish the year strong. If you’re a guy that’s taken on a bigger leadership and you haven’t had the greatest year that you think you should have, you want to show it in the last nine games. If you’re a guy who’s 10-, 12- or 14-year career you want to finish the year strong.

“It shouldn’t be,” he continued. “You’re playing in the NHL, and you’ve got to go out and compete and play with pride and play for each other. At the end of the day, you play for the guys in this dressing room, because we’ve been together for the whole year and guys have let each other down. We just haven’t been good enough.”

Chris Tierney is one of the rookies and his answer to a similar question echoed that of Couture when asked if it would be tough to skate out the remainder of the schedule.

“I don’t think so,” Tierney said. “Not for me and I know not for everyone in this room. Everyone’s going to compete right until the end. I have no doubt that anyone in this room is going to give up.”

Coach Todd McLellan wasn’t making any concession speeches just yet, though he was realistic enough to know where things stood. He, too, has never missed the playoffs in his coaching career.

“We’re not dealing in the fantasy world yet. We’re dealing in a world where we look at numbers and we still have an opportunity,” he said.

“Wherever it goes, we have to play hard every night, whether that means we’re in or we’re out,” he continued. “We have a tremendous amount of pride in our organization and with the individuals in the locker room, I can tell you that much. We have to perform, we have to live up to our own personal standards and up to our team standards.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.